The fruits of a Bluffton contractor’s labor to promote South Carolina tourism will actually be more about meat — specifically, the barbecued kind.

BFG Communications’ message that South Carolina barbecue is worth the trip will be reaching as far as eastern Tennessee when the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism begins rolling it out.

Other spots within a 350-mile radius will also get the message in upcoming months, said PRT spokesman Marion Edmonds. A central theme is that the state’s “undiscovered” corners have a lot to offer.

A website devoted to the state’s “virtual barbecue trail” is expected to go up in September.

“We wanted to work that into a creative hook,” said Edmonds. “We have a lot of bragging rights in South Carolina.”

Starting this month, he said, digital ads will appear on sites including the Food Network, Travel Channel, and Facebook, the latter being the PRT’s most effective outlet. The plan is to coordinate South Carolina barbecue excellence and variety with the fall football season.

Ads highlighting the state’s barbecue will appear in conjunction with football games, game day programs and stadium promotions. For example, when Wake Forest University plays against Clemson University, ads would run in the North Carolina community to entice football fans to explore South Carolina’s barbecue restaurants while they are here, Edmonds said.

Billboards, too, will occupy a place in the strategy. They will be placed at the entry points to the state, so a structure near Hardeeville may be in the works. But the locations have not been finalized.

It’s BFG’s first work for a South Carolina government agency.

Edmonds said there are reasons the Lexington region favors mustard-based barbecue, while the coastal counties prepare meat with vinegar and pepper — one area was settled by Germans and another by the English with heavy influences by slaves.

BFG, headquartered in Bluffton with 170 employees, won an estimated $57 million contract with the state tourism agency in January.

South Carolina’s tourism industry employs one in 10 South Carolina workers. Gross spending related to travel and tourism in 2011 was nearly $17 billion, according to a report by the U.S. Travel Association.

BFG president and CEO Kevin Meany was asked in a recent interview how promoting a government client compares to private clients.

The creative agency has worked for a long list of top corporate clients, includes Coca-Cola Company and Warner Brothers Entertainment.

“There really isn’t any difference,” Meany said. “Their marketing, the way it’s approached from a strategy standpoint, the thought process, the hopes for great creative problem solving, it’s there in South Carolina ... just as it is for any major brands we work with.”